By KELCY DOLAN

It all started with Tim Baker’s dream. Two of his friends, who never knew each other, were working together to retrieve a sunken treasure of gold bars.

In a twist of fate, it was all an elaborate scheme by one to steal the gold for himself. Waking up, Baker was entranced with his dream and couldn’t stop thinking about it all day. Finally, that night, he sat down to figure out what it all meant and began writing.

That dream inspired Baker’s first novel, titled Living the Dream.

Now, Baker has authored seven novels, one collection of short stories and co-written two novellas.

“In hindsight, its easy to say there was something bigger at work and for whatever reason it happened. I am glad it did. I started writing and I haven’t stopped yet,” Baker said.

Although he loved to read growing up, Baker never had inspirations to become an author, rather he started self-employed with a home improvement business in Warwick. He started his business in 2003 but several factors, some self-inflicted and due to the failing economy, the business tanked. Unemployed and facing foreclosure, Baker moved to Florida, where his brothers, sister and mother were living.

It was in Florida that he had his fateful dream.

Baker said, “It was something I was meant to do and the dream was the spark that got me going.”

That’s not to say Rhode Island doesn’t still play a large part in his writing career. He said there is an element of Rhode Island in everything he writes, whether it’s the way a character holds their self or the humor he uses in his narrative. He says he uses a lot of the Rhode Island “attitude” in his work.

Now, living in Palm Coast, Florida, Baker says it doesn’t take people five minutes to realize he isn’t from “the South.” He was a “fish out of water” when he first moved to Florida, and that allowed him to see the uniqueness of Rhode Islanders.

“A lot of my characters you could meet in Rhode Island. They won’t sit back and take it. They’ll stand up for themselves and get things done. You don’t mess with Rhode Islanders. I haven’t seen that in a lot of other states.”

Baker is a third of the way through finishing a book he actually started in 1988 while still living in Warwick, Full Circle. The story focuses on the concept of karma and how “our actions and the energy we put out in the world come back one way or another.”

Both the good and bad characters in the book will “get what’s coming to them,” according to Baker, and what appear like random occurrences will present themselves as connected.

When coming up with his plots, Baker first addresses a “what if” moment. He poses a question, for example, what would happen if a mortician was forced to act on the final thoughts of everybody she came in contact with.

“Most of my plots are eccentric and a little bit off center,” Baker said. “I write the books I’d like to read.”

It takes Baker about six months on average to finish writing a book and another two to finish editing. He knows how the story will begin and end and let’s the body of the work just “flow” from him.

“My stories are character driven. I let them dictate where the story is going to go,” Baker said.

One character Baker never expected was former Navy SEAL Ike. Ike shows up in his first book as a secondary character, a mere helper. For his second novel, Water Hazard, Ike began to take a little bit more shape, but after hearing how much his fans loved the character Baker began writing Ike in as the hero for his other novels.

Baker said, “Well I guess you’d call him an anti-hero because he is not a boy scout by any stretch of the imagination.”

Baker says Ike really took on a life all his own through writing.

Other things Baker hears from his readers is that they love his descriptions how he can “put them in the story without burying them under a million words” while incorporating humor and sarcasm.

He categorizes his work as Florida crime fiction.

“From the day I started I was immediately in love with creating a story, and I couldn’t imagine not doing it,” Baker said.

Baker’s books are available on Amazon.

WHAT A DREAM: Author Tim Baker started writing after he couldn’t stop thinking about a crazy dream. That dream became his first novel, and now he has 10 written works. He uses his Rhode Island roots to influence his writing and the characters he creates.